Professional Development of Elementary School Teachers through Online Peer Collaboration: A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of the current case study is to explore the influence of online peer collaboration among Turkish elementary school teachers in order to gain an understanding of the contributions from online peer collaboration to teachers’ professional development. For the purpose this study, online peer collaboration is defined as online support provided by teachers to one another through a web-based professional development platform called “Learner-Teachers”. This case study involves eight volunteer elementary school teachers who have been involved in “Learner-Teachers” online peer collaboration professional development process. Qualitative data collection consisted of semi-structured interview and utilizing teachers’ online entries on the web-based exchange platform. Open coding method and entry analyses were done as data analyses. Four main themes emerged from the current study: 1) Satisfaction with peer collaboration 2) Usefulness of online peer collaboration 3) Improvement of classroom teaching methods and techniques 4) Improvement of classroom management skills. Overall, teachers who participated the online peer collaboration appeared to benefit from this collaboration in their personal and professional development. The importance of peer collaboration via online tools are discussed.